


Push

by vibranium



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M, also JARVIS is a little bitch, clint and natasha are best bros, they like to get involved when they probably shouldn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-03
Updated: 2013-12-03
Packaged: 2018-01-03 09:55:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1069093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vibranium/pseuds/vibranium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes him a while to notice the fact that Clint and Natasha are even up to something, and that something is pushing Tony closer to him when they’re sitting on the couch, or bumping into Tony, which makes Tony bump into him, while he’s trying to put some fucking cream cheese on his bagel in the morning (and that really pisses him off sometimes, because then he gets cream cheese on the plate and it’s not clean anymore, and he likes his plate to be clean before he eats).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Push

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by Goose! Hope you all enjoy this -- it's my first time at writing a full fic for Stony!

It takes him a while to notice the fact that Clint and Natasha are even up to something, and that _something_ is pushing Tony closer to him when they’re sitting on the couch, or bumping into Tony, which makes Tony bump into him, while he’s trying to put some fucking cream cheese on his bagel in the morning (and that really pisses him off sometimes, because then he gets cream cheese on the plate and it’s not _clean_ anymore, and he likes his plate to be clean before he eats).

 

Now, Steve isn’t fucking dumb. Tony stares at him sometimes, when he does the smallest, most mundane things (like putting cream cheese on his bagel for breakfast, and _that’s_ why Clint or Natasha or both of them see the best opportunity to push Tony into him, because the man is in too much of a daze to notice until it’s already happened), or when he’s working out, or sparring with Natasha, or just watching that brand new television with the color and the loud sounds and the huge explosions in the movies.

 

And Steve, well, he can’t say that he doesn’t find the staring and the dazed looks endearing, because he does. He _can_ say, though, that it irks him when Tony stares at him while he’s trying to draw, or trying to read, because it really screws with his concentration. It makes him have to reread a paragraph four times before he registers the words in his mind. It seems, too, that Tony thinks the perfect staring spot while Steve is drawing is either right behind him or right fucking next to him, and Steve doesn’t notice until he’s been there for a solid three minutes, so the soldier nearly jumps out of his skin every time (though, really, he should expect it at this point) and says, “ _Stark_ , what the _hell_?”

 

Tony, the little asshole, gets a laugh out of it every single time. But Steve really likes his laugh, so he eventually calms down and lets it go.

 

So, whatever, Steve started to tack onto the whole plan a little bit too late, but now that he has, it’s really making him think about what the hell even sparked the plan in the first place. Now, the last place Steve wants to be is digging around in Natasha’s brain, but Clint’s… maybe isn’t too bad. And if he was the one to think up the plan, then Steve’s in luck. It may be easier to understand motives that way.

 

When Steve asks, he gets a “I don’t know what you’re even talking about, Captain Spandex,” out of Clint, who gets a jab to the side in turn from Natasha, sitting with her legs tucked under her beside her partner in crime. And match-making, apparently.

 

Natasha, not very compliant but willing to toss out hints like dog treats to an excited puppy, only says, “Pay attention more, Rogers, because we’re just trying to help something along.”

 

***

 

It turns out that that new something is Tony wanting to climb Steve like a tree. Well, that comes later, but really, Tony just really, really, _really_ wants to be able to pet Steve and have it not be creepy. Basically, he wants to date (and he shudders at the word, because dating means commitment, something he’s… not exactly experienced in) Steve, and it’s a weird feeling, but ever since he even told Clint, he and Natasha have been, y’know, trying to aid him in his endeavors.

 

Aid comes in the form of hitting into Steve ‘by accident,’ coming up with bruises on both sides because Steve is like a solid rock, Natasha’s fucking strong, and Clint, well, he just shoves too hard sometimes. When he sees the bruises on whatever side he hit into Steve with, he’s always like, ‘Wow, I touched him,’ and Tony finds that thought process so _strange_ for him.

 

When he tells Pepper, because like hell is he going to tell Clint and Natasha, she says, “Oh, puppy love. This is so cute. I’m going to mark the calendar.” Tony scoffs, plays offended, but yeah, maybe it _is_ cute. He can be cute.

 

And he’s _so_ cute that once he grows the balls to do something other than hit into Steve over and over and apologize, he continues on with something that Natasha does to him; when she pushes him into Steve on the couch during a movie Steve’s never even seen before, the blond man’s arm already laying on the back of it, Tony sucks it up and actually leans in closer.

 

To his surprise (and later, to Steve’s own), Steve drops his arms around Tony’s shoulders and holds him there.

 

 _That’s_ when Tony knew he was screwed into thirteen other dimensions.

 

**

 

Steve doesn’t even know what he’s thinking when he puts his arm around Tony. It’s more of an automatic thing, a secret, lingering want that’d been creeping its way out from the back of his head, but once it’s done, it’s done, and he finds himself not pulling his arm away.

 

His chest tightens when Tony makes like a cat and cuddles closer. And it’s the fucking cutest thing to Steve. He doesn’t do anything but relax a bit more into the couch, though, because he really just wants to kiss Tony’s face and be really cute with him but he can’t because this is the first time anything’s even _happened_ other than them smacking into each other or bickering over the comms units because Tony doesn’t know how to follow orders.

 

The soldier keeps on watching the movie he’s not very interested in and wasn’t interested in in the first place (even though Clint said it’s a must-see for him because ‘it’s so friggin’ awesome’) and tries to think of what to do next, how to not make it awkward. The bumping-into-each-other plan is working. Maybe he’ll keep doing that. Unless they’re past that. It _seems_ like they’re past that. And God, he hopes they are.

 

**

 

By the time the movie is two-thirds of the way over, Tony’s nodding off. He doesn’t notice it until his face is pressed against one of Steve’s very well-sculpted pecs (hot damn, this is the greatest opportunity _ever_ ). And hell, Steve doesn’t even notice either. Tony’s snoring by the middle of the credits, but it’s that light kind of snoring that says ‘No, I’m not completely fucking asleep, but I’m almost there.’ JARVIS is a little bitch for putting the lights back on, which wakes Tony up.

 

Well, okay, the lights aren’t the only thing that wakes Tony up – Steve’s nudging him gently and quietly telling him that the movie’s over, offering to carry him to bed. _That would be so cute, wouldn’t it?_ Tony thinks, lifting his head for a second before dropping it back down to Steve’s chest. And the moment he puts his head back down, he says,

 

“Fuck, m’sorry. I fuckin’ drooled on your shirt and it’s disgusting and I’m sorry.” He’s all drowsy and still half-asleep, but he lifts his head again, wiping at his mouth with one hand and trying to use the corner of his own shirt to blot at Steve’s (which makes no sense, really, except to Tony’s blurry mind).

 

Steve’s going, “Tony, no, it’s _fine_ , it’s just drool. You’ve _bled_ on me before; this is _nothing_ ,” over Tony’s rambling words and apologies, and the brunette isn’t buying it. He keeps talking and talking and apologizing and saying he won’t do it again and he shouldn’t have even fallen _asleep_ on Steve in the first place, and he says that.

 

In return, he gets, “Tony, shut up. Its fine,” and a hand smacked over his mouth, which tries to keep going anyway. Steve just presses his hand down harder to make his point clear. He adds anyway, “Shut up.”

 

Tony shuts up. For once.

 

**

 

It becomes a thing. Tony curls up against Steve’s side on movie night; Steve puts his arm around Tony and periodically checks on the state of Tony’s drooling, because he really doesn’t want the man to have another fit over it again.

 

There are other things that become common. They bump into each other (without help) on purpose during breakfast. They sit next to each other when the team all actually sits down and eats together. And sometimes, during briefings or just meeting in general, they hook their ankles together under the table.

 

It’s the strangest kind of courting, because really, they’re just dancing around each other. Little things escalate to slightly bigger things, too, but they’re not even that big at all, not in the first place, and not after that slight morph.

 

And nothing changes for months of hooked ankles and sitting next to each other for dinner. Nothing changes but how often they actually speak to each other, and what they speak about.

 

It takes four months (one month longer than Clint and Natasha had anticipated) before they decide to confront each other and talk about the… _thing_ they have going on.

 

Steve follows Tony down into the lab, catches him before he begins his work, and actually reaches for one of the man’s rough hands, squeezing it once before dropping it, just to get Tony’s attention. “I just wanted to, um… clear the air, I guess. Sit with me?”

 

“Yeah. Been wanting to talk with you,” Steve gets in response as Tony leads him over to one of the couches he’s fallen asleep on way too many times (and somehow, he always ends up in his own bed) (he figures out after, like, the third time that it’s Steve carrying him up, because eventually, he’s got a clean shirt on, and he’s even tucked in like a fucking burrito. Or like a soldier).

 

Tony can’t count how many times the conversation veers onto different topics; all he knows when they stand up is that it’s been four hours, and they’ve all stood up because JARVIS told them that it was time for dinner and Bruce made stir fry.

 

Oh, yeah, Tony also knows now that Steve’s a really awesome kisser. Like, _really_ awesome. He knows because they spent that last hour sucking face when Tony really should’ve been reconstructing one of his palm gauntlets.

 

Steve had _totally_ been watching Tony’s mouth whenever he talked, and after a while, the brunette started to fidget, bringing his hands to his mouth self-consciously. Leave it to Steve to make him feel self-conscious. And in the midst of a sentence, he’d found himself with the blond man’s mouth against his own, noses smushing together awkwardly.

 

He’d taken the perfect opportunity and crawled right up onto Steve’s lap, and he was fucking _welcoming_ of it. And handsy. His hands were really fucking warm on his ass, and it was pretty damn nice. The sneaky sonuvabitch got a squeeze or two in too.

 

Tony figured he should start a calendar of firsts, too, like Pepper said she would. ‘First kiss’ and ‘first consensual ass squeeze’ would go up there quickly.

 

So, yeah, Steve’s an awesome kisser. And his hands are huge. But, like, perfectly huge.

 

They spend dinner getting enthused looks from the others for their red and swollen lips. Clint makes kissy faces at them when he thinks they aren’t looking.

 

Under the table, their ankles are hooked together.

 

**

 

For all the talking that they’d done, they never really decided on what they had going on. They keep it that way for a while until Steve can’t quite deal with hiding and sneaking around anymore. A while is only three weeks, but to Steve, it feels like a damn eternity.

 

He sits Tony down again and tries not to kiss him after every sentence (he’s pretty unsuccessful until he steels himself and placates himself with playing with Tony’s hair). Eventually, he has to ask, “What do you want this… thing between us to be?”

 

After a moment, he has a red-cheeked billionaire sitting in front of him, and he tells himself that he’s _so_ going to draw that when he gets the chance. But Tony’s thinking and he seems conflicted, and that scares Steve to no end. He waits anyway and is happy enough when he got a slow response.

 

“I don’t really… know, honestly. I’m not a, y’know, relationship kind of person but I want that with you. I just don’t wanna fuck up, but you’ve got to know that it might happen. Pepper knew it was gonna happen and that’s why we’re fine now. So, uh, if you… want a relationship and all that stuff, d’you think you’d be… okay with that? You know how I am…”

 

And yeah, Steve _does_ know how Tony is; he likes change and he doesn’t like to stay committed to one project at a time. He’d already thought about all that, about the consequences of Tony’s dislike of constants unless those constants were coffee and science.

 

He’d decided that he’d be prepared for fuck-ups, so he tells Tony, “Yeah, I’d be okay with that,” and he can’t help but return the blinding smile he gets from the man sitting beside him. He adds, “We can work on your drooling problem, too,” just so he can hear that fucking adorable laugh.

 

Steve hears it against his own mouth.


End file.
